Author: James McNally

Two Warriors

Yesterday, I watched not one, but two sweeping historical biopics. In the afternoon, I watched Patton (1970), starring George C. Scott. In the evening, it was Gandhi (1982), with Ben Kingsley. Two men, both warriors of a sort, but completely different in their aims and methods. Patton was like a Roman general, and since he believed in reincarnation, might have thought he was one. Gandhi was a sort of Christ-like figure, absorbing suffering and injustice and turning it to good. Both were great performances, but I was disappointed that in neither film did I ever feel I got inside the subject’s head, to see their motivations, their struggles, their humanity. You’d think that three hours would be enough time to tell a story that had more than just events in it. I guess this is why we still have books!

Branford Marsalis Quartet

Back in July, just after we’d seen Wynton Marsalis, Brooke ordered tickets to see his brother Branford. Last night was the show. Branford plays saxophone, and tours as a quartet. As always, I found myself concentrating most on the drummer. Jeff “Tain” Watts was another amazing performer. My major annoyance with some jazz music is that the musicians get bogged down in endless noodling. Watts was (almost) always the light that kept my ship off the rocks last night. And since our seats were practically over the stage, I could look straight down on him and see all the amazing things he was doing.

When I was younger, I played in a couple of bands. We were completely non-serious and even non-talented, and I ended up playing the drums almost by default, but even now, I find myself picking out the drum parts in music. A good drummer can turn an ordinary song into something great. And drummers can also get in the way, too. For instance, although Ringo is often derided as the least talented Beatle, he never got in the way of the music. By contrast, I’ve always found Police drummer Stewart Copeland to be far too showy. On a lot of their music, he over-drums outrageously. Especially in three-piece bands, the drummer is vital, but he should never draw too much attention to himself.

Spoon Rarities Discs

The Internet is a marvellous thing. As you’re all tired of hearing, my favourite band is Spoon. I’m on a mailing list for fans of the band, and a few people decided to put together a “rarities” CD of stuff that was no longer available. The band’s permission was obtained (and they even provided liner notes) and today I received my copy of the 2-CD set. Now my job is to burn some copies and mail them to other fans on the mailing list. I can’t imagine how any of this could have happened ten years ago. P.S. If you happen to get your hands on these discs, I’ve already gone to the trouble of uploading the tracklists to CDDB.